Lloyds Financial institution has revealed that British SMEs with low digital functionality may unlock as much as a further £84.5 billion turnover in the event that they had been to embrace expertise.
Nonetheless, many entrepreneurs baulk at having to purchase costly software program packages outright or license Software program-as-a-Service (SaaS) when the invoice may run into 1000’s of kilos every year for small companies on razor-thin margins.
But there are many workplace productiveness options on the market that don’t tie you in to contracts.
Offering your workstation – whether or not it’s a desktop or cellular – is updated, there are many free options to costly software program packages.
A few of these apps listed beneath use the freemium mannequin, the place entry stage performance is obtainable totally free however it’s a must to purchase bolt-ons to unlock the total potential of what the app can do.
Some platforms are funded by promoting whereas others supply a free model as a strategy to scale up shortly.
Listed here are 20 free choices for enhancing your enterprise productiveness that don’t contain tying up hard-earned money movement:
- Workplace Suites
- Electronic mail Apps
- Accounting
- Collaboration and Undertaking Administration
- Office Communication
- Social Media Administration
- AI Instruments
- On the Transfer – Apps for the cellular enterprise
Workplace suites
Google Workspace Necessities
Google’s suite of on-line instruments locations extra of an emphasis on collaboration than different suites on the market. You’ll be able to choose folks to work with you on the identical doc, spreadsheet, presentation or type, and you may all make adjustments in actual time. The fantastic thing about Office is that it interconnects with Google’s different choices, reminiscent of Google Drive, which provides 15GB of free storage, and its Google Analytics instruments, which reveals you the way internet pages are performing. The most recent addition to the suite is its AI (LLM) software ‘Gemini’, which may additionally act as an assistant inside a few of the afore-mentioned instruments.
Microsoft 365 Apps On-line
Workplace was the ever present enterprise suite, providing staples reminiscent of Phrase, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. Now rebranded as Microsoft 365, the free apps obtainable supply the core merchandise, plus you possibly can retailer as much as 5GB in its OneDrive back-up service. It additionally has its personal AI platform ‘Co-pilot‘. To search out out extra concerning the full model of Workplace 365 go right here.
Zoho
This primary free web-based suite is geared toward entrepreneurs and small companies and features a phrase processor, spreadsheet builder, CRM, and varied different instruments. It’s tremendous for easy duties however you’re going to wish to look elsewhere for extra refined options. It shops your entire paperwork in its free on-line cupboard space (1GB), and lets you share them with (member) mates by way of e mail invites. Zoho Author has some nifty touches like a darkish mode and a clacking typewriter sound to enliven a quiet workplace, whereas Zoho Sheet – its model of Excel – additionally permits real-time collaboration.
LibreOffice
That is an open supply workplace suite, which implies any of its thousands and thousands of customers can enhance performance. Accessible in over 100 languages, LibreOffice consists of apps reminiscent of Author (phrase processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (shows), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (components enhancing).
Electronic mail Apps
The workplace suites already talked about have their very own e mail shoppers (which can be all superb) however right here we listing out a few of the greatest apps from different suppliers that may run effectively as a devoted service on the preferred gadgets.
Thunderbird
Thunderbird is open supply and is funded by consumer donations. It doesn’t gather private information, promote advertisements in your inbox, or secretly prepare AI along with your non-public conversations. It’s a part of the Mozilla household of tech merchandise (the identical individuals who make the Firefox browser). Handle your messages, calendars, and contacts in any Home windows, Linux, Apple or Android system.
Edison
The core Edison Mail is app is free to make use of and has a bunch of helpful options, reminiscent of color coding, one faucet unsubscribes, a number of signatures and so forth. It has received a number of awards and is persistently probably the most common mail apps within the Android and Apple shops. The paid for model (Edison Mail +) has plenty of inbuilt safety features, so if staying protected is a precedence for your enterprise then that’s the strategy to go.
Mailbird
A desktop e mail shopper for Home windows and MacOS, with a UX design that has been broadly praised as being trendy and smooth. Sadly, the free model is severely restricted – you possibly can solely use it with one e mail account, and several other of its most helpful options (reminiscent of ChatGPT integration) usually are not obtainable. The total model is slightly below £5.00 per thirty days per consumer.
Accounting
Pandle
Pandle has been developed from the get-go with British small companies in thoughts. It has
straightforward to know drop-down menus permitting you to enter transactions and suppliers, create quotes and customisable invoices and export figures to Excel. The platform additionally permits you deal with a number of currencies, to create profit-and-loss and steadiness sheets, file VAT returns to HMRC by means of its Making Tax Digital initiative, and much extra. There’s a cellular app model too.
The free model shouldn’t be designed for big volumes of transactions and the financial institution import/explaining course of shouldn’t be that refined. Nonetheless, there’s a Professional model at £5 per thirty days (+VAT) which provides a whole lot of further performance.
Quickfile
QuickFile Accounting Software program is free for small to medium sized accounts if the nominal ledger depend stays below 1,000 in any 12 month interval. It’s MTD compliant, can deal with a number of currencies, financial institution feeds, VAT and invoicing. It connects to many common cost options (e.g. Stripe, Sq., PayPal and others) and there’s an API choice to combine with again workplace methods.
Collaboration and Undertaking Administration
nTask
nTask Fundamental Plan is free for as much as 5 workforce members with limitless workspaces. It’s a activity administration software with a web based calendar-based platform that lets you create duties, bundle these duties into tasks, convene conferences, flag points and create timesheets. Nifty options embody seeing what proportion of every activity or mission has been accomplished and integrations with many essential apps like Google or Outlook calendars, Zoom and Groups, Zapier, and Slack.
General, nTask retains abreast of the performance of different, dearer and sophisticated workflow administration platforms.
Agantty
Agantty is from Germany. It’s calendar-based, enabling you so as to add duties, tasks and assign workforce members, including to a use-flow Gantt workflow chart. You’ll be able to toggle between what must be achieved at this time, this week or this month. And it interfaces with common cloud storage websites reminiscent of Dropbox and Google Drive.
The free model is for a most of 1 mission (except you’re a non-profit, instructor or scholar). The paid-for model has no limits on tasks, groups or duties and in addition provides tech help.
Office Communication
Slack
Slack is an easy to make use of instantaneous messaging system that allows a lot quicker communication than interoffice emails. It lets you group messages into theme-related “channels” reminiscent of “new mission” or “export plan” – something you need – holding office conversations organised. It interfaces with cloud storage options together with Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsoft 365. And it additionally feeds into mission administration methods reminiscent of Asana and Trello. British corporations that use Slack embody the BBC, Ocado and Information UK. The free model is sort of intensive however naturally there are limitations in comparison with the paid-for model – a listing of which you’ll be able to see right here.
Flock
Flock’s easy, vibrant interface lets you have non-public or public conversations with office colleagues, add recordsdata and create opinion polls with colleagues. It additionally connects with different commonplace apps reminiscent of Google Drive, Twitter and Trello and in addition has a nifty video conferencing characteristic. The free model is geared toward small groups getting began, provides 10 public channels, shops as much as 10,000 messages, and has 5GB of storage per workforce. The Professional paid-for model provides extra performance and is available in at round US$4.50 per consumer per thirty days.
Social Media Administration
Buffer
Buffer is an efficient resolution for small companies and covers all the important thing duties related to managing social media channels. Its free bundle permits 1 consumer account to attach as much as 3 channels with 10 schedules posts per channel, with a primary analytics bundle and AI assistant. The Necessities paid-for model provides extra performance at US$5.00 per account per thirty days.
Crowdfire
Boasting a clear, easy-to-use interface, the free model of Crowdfire is sort of restricted at solely 10 scheduled posts per account (3 max), but it surely does provide you with an opportunity to check Crowdfire’s core capabilities throughout Fb, Linkedin, X, and Instagram, plus providing hashtag suggestions and limitless article and picture curation.
AI Instruments
Copy.ai
Copy.ai is a ‘GTM (Go-To-Market)’ platform constructed to assist gross sales and advertising and marketing groups automate content material creation and different ‘go-to-market’ processes utilizing AI, providing instruments for content material era, prospecting, CRM enrichment, and extra. The free model provides: 1 Seat, 2,000 Phrases in Chat, connectors to
ChatGPT 3.5 and Claude 3, the Copy.ai Model Voice and Copy.ai Infobase.
ChatGPT
Probably the most well-known of the preliminary wave of AI LLM chatbots, ChatGPT nonetheless provides a free bundle for on a regular basis, content-related duties: Entry to GPT‑4o mini and restricted entry to GPT‑4o and o3‑mini, real-time information from the net with search, restricted entry to file uploads, information evaluation, picture era, and voice mode, and you may create customized GPTs.
Pixlr
On the Transfer – Apps for the cellular enterprise
Evernote
At its most elementary, Evernote lets you create notes, to-do lists and share them. It really works throughout iPhones, Home windows, Android and Mac. The free model is restricted to 50 Notes and 1 Pocket book, 1 system connection and 250MB of month-to-month uploads at 200MB most Observe measurement. The Evernote Skilled model prices £8.74 a month and permits as much as 150,000 Notes, 2,000 Notebooks, 20GB of month-to-month uoloads
Doodle
If you happen to’re on the highway and juggling shopper conferences, Doodle – obtainable on iOS and Android – is a quick strategy to examine participant availability and repair occasions and dates. It additionally integrates along with your favorite calendar, whether or not it’s iCalendar, Outlook or Google.
The free possibility provides primary scheduling, suggests occasions, permits you to invite contributors, decide the best choice and lock the assembly, join calendars, plus some add-ons like group polls.
The ‘Professional’ model prices US$6.95 per consumer per thirty days and lets you ship reminders, ship calendar invitations, add your organization brand, scrape contributors’ contact data, gather funds with Stripe and extra.
Additional studying
Greatest cost apps for small companies
High 9 enterprise apps for busy enterprise homeowners
Find out how to enhance productiveness by investing in the appropriate workplace furnishings
